Vietnam War - NZ Govt says sorry to soldiers

Vietnam war protesters from the sixties and seventies have welcomed the Government's apology to veterans but say the Vietnamese population deserve an apology too.

Prime Minister Helen Clark apologised in Parliament today to New Zealand's Vietnam veterans for the way they were treated after they returned from the war.

Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt, who protested against the war, said today's apology would help "heal the wounds".

"What's been so painful for those soldiers is that they did their duty for the country and they've really been treated extremely badly by successive Governments in terms of the sickness that they picked up while serving there," Mr Shadbolt said.

"It will recognise the terrible ecological tragedy that so many went through that neither the protesters or the soldiers were aware of."

But the Vietnamese people also have deformed children and "were victims of this war", he said.

Earlier Helen Clark extended the Crown's apologies to all Vietnam veterans, acknowledging that the health impacts suffered by the veterans weren't recognised "by successive governments".

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[Cazho123]

@COMMUNISTPHILOSOPHY That should not be the tittle of the Veterans, You know they are heros. agreed not every thing they did was perfect. But these are the men who served their country with honor by going to hell and back.

[COMMUNISTPHILOSOPHY]

glorifying baby killers, scumbags are worthy of no respect

[COMMUNISTPHILOSOPHY]

My Lai Massacre".

'He fired at it [the baby] with a .45. He missed. We all laughed. He got up three or four feet closer and missed again. We laughed. Then he got up right on top and plugged him.'

"Peers Inquiry: Report of the Department of the Army Review of the Preliminary Investigations into the My Lai Incident".

[GoldCoastKiwi4209]

@vtxtd2 You sad misguided Racist!!! Your racist opinions are BORING & are just as bad as the filthy scum that are now in charge of Zimbabwe and the cowards that run around wearing "White Hoods" in the American South!!! You need to crawl back under the rock you dragged yourself from under and give up on your pathetic racist views. If NZ reverted to the way you wanted it, then YOU wouldn't be using THE WHITE MAN'S computer. I'm a proud KIWI, MAORI FATHER & ENGLISH MOTHER, BEST OF BOTH WORLDS !!!!!

[50poiuyt]

White out of Maori land!

[vtxtd2]

who don't u ask the Moriori and Maori who own NZ? don't think they will say whitees are welcome to overtake.

What dumb advice, u wanna try rock up to Tokyo, Zimbabwe, Palestine, Iraq.. anywhere and say "Land does not belong to one ethnic or racial group"

[Communistheretic]

Stop spewing forth such bigoted bullshit. We all live on one planet. Land does not belong to one ethnic or racial group but to the people sharing it, you ignorant hypocrite. Are you forgetting the Moriori that the Taranaki Maori invaded and enslaved?

Let the past be the past and move on to a brighter future of unity and peace.

[FilmCryptic]

I highly doubt it matters what stand the Labour party took back in the day. The fact that it was against the deeds that the Vietnam Vets did is a little iffy when included before an official apology. A least John Key of the Nats said sorry in detail before continuing on to his party's views and standing on the issues.